IT'S no secret Glasgow gets a dreadful deal from the Scottish Government.

When they’re handing out money, we always find ourselves pushed to the back of the queue but, when the cuts come, we seem to go right to the front.

But at the same time services have improved in the last five years. So it’s no coincidence the people of Glasgow sent a strong message to Alex Salmond by derailing his plans to take control of the City Chambers.

But how have we done it? And how will we continue to protect services?

We’ve done it by being radical, by planning ahead and by taking difficult decisions before the big public spending cuts.

Glasgow City Council have reduced spending by an average of almost £50million a year for the last six years and we’ve done it without substantial cuts to services and without one compulsory redundancy.

Setting up Glasgow Life allowed us to continue to deliver world class cultural and sporting facilities at a substantially reduced cost, and setting up companies like City Parking and City Property allowed us to access finance which would not have been available to the council previously.

It is important to remember two things.

First, with each year where we make millions of pounds of savings, it gets progressively harder.

Second, we are only able to cope by being bold and taking difficult decisions.